This weekend, New Orleans and Mississippi mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating storm in modern American history. As I write this, tropical storm Erika is causing havoc in the Caribbean and threatening Florida. Now is the perfect time for Google to introduce storm tracking.
Google just announced it’s expanding important weather information when people search for extreme weather in their area, like hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards. It will now show maps and proximity of the next storm coming to your viewing area, county, city, even down to your neighborhood. It will show the storm’s predicted track, courtesy of NOAA. Instructions, coming from FEMA and ready.gov, will be used through Google notes telling people how to prepare. If a storm is a few days away (picture a hurricane or blizzard), Google might tell you where the storm is now, it’s track, how to prepare for an emergency kit, and remind you to keep in tune to the news. If the storm is hours or even minutes away (picture a tornado, severe thunderstorm, or flash flood), Google may tell you to prepare for a power outage, or which room to ride out the storm in. The closer the storm comes, and the more severe the storm is, the more urgent the Google messages will be.
This couldn’t have come at a better time of year. We’re almost at the peak of hurricane season. We remembering historic storms like Katrina, Andrew, and let’s throw in the Hurricane of 1900 for good measure. This is the perfect time to roll out such technology. But don’t wait until the next storm to be prepared. Stock up on necessities like generators, extra food, extra water, first aid kit, and portable radio now. Here in Boston, we saw four blizzards in a 30 day period. So I‘ve learned about how critical emergency preparedness can be. But isn’t Google storm tracking a great tool to keep safe?